Marketing has a very outward focus, a brand’s focus (as it should be) is on gaining customers, attracting and engaging their target audience and converting them into consumers of the product or service they provide; this is true for both B2B and B2C. However, this business cannot be sourced, pursued or attained without the bodies you hire internally, a business would not move, grow or develop without the minds that drive it, and as a growing business, you need to be constantly attracting this new talent whilst retaining the talent you already attain! Enter, employer branding!
Employer branding is your internal marketing to your internal customers – your staff, and also external marketing to your potential staff – candidates and new recruits. The aim? Not to convert them into customers but to convert them into advocates of your brand, happy employees who love the place they work or eager recruits excited to come and work for the company you have created, full of opportunity for growth, benefits and holding values they share.
Of course, as with external marketing, the product (the company) won’t be for everyone, but as you get to know your company culture, you’ll get to know your ideal target audience, the kind of workers you’d like to attract to positions and welcome into your business.
In 2015 Harvard Business Review noted that Employer Branding was set to ‘gain greater strategic importance’ with 60% of CEOs surveyed saying that this responsibility lies with the CEO or Marketing team.
Strong Employer Branding From A Marketing Team:
Utilise Your Resources:
Use the real-life team that is around you, venture outside of the marketing department and speak to all of the teams which keep the business running smoothly, what are their likes and even dislikes about the company. The likes have done half of the work for you – this is what your customer (the workforce) likes and wants from your company. The dislikes are areas to explore, your opportunities to improve.
Suss Out Your Reputation:
Externally, how is your business received? If there are any negative attributes, you can concentrate your efforts on changing this perspective, as well as highlighting the other positive qualities? You might also monitor your candidate drop off rate; if you’re losing suitable candidates somewhere along the interview process, this may be related to your reputation or atmosphere so ask for genuine feedback from those lost candidates and from your newest recruits too!
Work With HR:
Focusing on your areas for improvement, if you have identified any, you may not, from a marketing standpoint, be in a position to change them alone. For this reason, liaising with management and HR from the off, looping them into your plans will mean that when it comes to making internal changes to the way things run, they’re onboard and understand your viewpoint and perspective -getting other departments on board with plans to change, can often be one of the biggest challenges!
